Gaza City, Palestine – The accuracy of casualty figures in the ongoing conflict in Gaza has been a topic of debate, with the Health Ministry in Gaza being scrutinized for its reporting. The World Health Organisation has acknowledged the ministry’s capacity in data collection and analysis, describing its past reporting as credible. The United Nations has relied on the ministry’s figures as a source for death tolls in the region.
In response to doubts raised by US President Joe Biden regarding casualty figures, the health ministry in Gaza published a detailed list of the 7,028 deaths that had been recorded at the time. Despite concerns raised over the inclusion of certain casualties, a peer-reviewed article in the Lancet medical journal in November deemed the patterns in the list to be genuine. However, there are specific discrepancies regarding the reported deaths in an explosion at al-Ahli al-Arab hospital on October 17.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza is under the control of Hamas, the governing authority in the region since 2007. However, the ministry is also accountable to the overall Palestinian Authority ministry in Ramallah, situated in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The control of Hamas within Gaza is complex to evaluate, particularly with Israeli forces occupying significant portions of the territory.
Israeli officials have expressed skepticism over the accuracy of the figures reported by the Health Ministry in Gaza, citing Hamas’ influence. While the Israeli military has acknowledged the general reliability of casualty numbers, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently stated estimates of casualties among Hamas fighters and Palestinian civilians in the conflict.
Differentiating between civilians and combatants in the casualty figures is a challenge, as Hamas fighters often do not have distinct identification. The Health Ministry in Gaza has reported that a majority of the deceased are women and children under the age of 18. The conditions in hospitals compiling these figures have become increasingly challenging due to the ongoing conflict, leading to difficulties in identifying some of the deceased.
Questions have also been raised regarding the methodology used in reporting casualties, with Israel highlighting discrepancies in the number of identified bodies. This has added to the complexity of assessing the true impact of the conflict on both civilians and combatants in Gaza.